Shoranur: Passengers could soon travel in Vande Bharat trains at lesser costs if the Railways go ahead with a proposal to switch over from the current ticket pricing system to that of the airline model.
The Railways is actively considering the reduction of ticket prices of Vande Bharat trains, having fewer passengers, or changing the fares seasonally on the aviation model.
The fare reduction will not be applicable to Kerala, as the Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod Vande Bharat train currently has the highest patronage in the country. But if the ticket pricing model is in fact changed to that of the aircraft model, the passengers of the Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod Vande Bharat train too could derive the benefit.
In a review conducted in the last week of June, the Railways assessed the status of Vande Bharat trains in the country. As per this review, the lowest number of passengers were in Indore-Bhopal, Bhopal-Jabalpur, and Nagpur-Bilaspur Vande Bharat trains. More people than expected are traveling daily on the Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod train. The Railways is considering a method of reducing fares and attracting more people in Vande Bharat trains, which have less of passengers.
Since there is a rush in the trains running through other states, if the fare reduction is not applied in their case, the same can result in complaints of discrimination. It is also being assessed in the review. The shortest travel time in Vande Bharat trains is three hours, and the maximum is 10 hours. The Nagpur-Bilaspur Vande Bharat train was withdrawn after the number of passengers in it decreased. The Tejas Express is running during this time.
Number of passengers on various routes in percentage terms (200)
Thiruvananthapuram - Kasaragod - 176
Kasargod - Thiruvananthapuram – 183
Gandhinagar - Mumbai Central – 134
Mumbai Central - Gandhinagar - 129
Varanasi - New Delhi - 128
New Delhi - Varanasi – 124
Dehradun - Amritsar – 105
Mumbai - Sholapur - 111
Sholapur - Mumbai – 104
Nagpur - Bilaspur – 55
Bhopal - Jabalpur – 32
Jabalpur - Bhopal - 36
Bhopal - Indore – 29
Indore - Bhopal – 21
